B-Reel Ad Company Wins CLIO Awards

Jana Kasperkevic is a graduate of Baruch College, City University of New York, where she earned a bachelors degree in Journalism and Political Science. She covers start-ups, small businesses, and entrepreneurship for Inc. Her work has appeared in The Village Voice, InvestmentNews, Business Insider, and Houston Chronicle, among others. She lives in Brooklyn.

Collectively Brilliant Anders Wahlquist, center, with his New York employees. Individuals don't expect to get a lot of credit at B-Reel. That would be un-Swedish.

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It's no secret the advertising production company B-Reel is changing the industry. The company made waves last year with the viral sensation The Wilderness Downtown, and this year it released The Beauty Inside, an interactive branded film that invites viewers to play the lead role.

On Friday, B-Reel announced it had swept the prestigious CLIO awards, winning not one, but two Gold distinctions in the Film and Branded Entertainment categories. Other recent award wins include six One Show awards, two Golds for SXSW, five Art Directors Club awards, and four Webby awards.

"The Beauty Inside is a truly integrated project, where the boundaries between traditional storytelling and user interaction is totally blurred,” Pelle Nilsson, executive producer and founding partner, said in a statement. “And it shows that a great collaboration between agency and production company is what makes for outstanding execution."

B-Reel, which has its roots in Scandinavia, has traditionally shied away from straightforward ad work, even as it lacked the technology.

"Limitations are frustrating, but they can also trigger a really creative side in you," Petter Westlund, the company's chief creative officer, said of the company's hacker mentality. To date, the company has created dazzling ad campaigns for Mitsubishi, State Farm, Doritos, and Google.

The Beauty Inside is not the first B-Reel production to receive accolades this year. Both that film and another short for Google Maps Cube received numerous nominations and won four Silver Pencils and one Bronze Pencil from The One Club, which promotes excellence in advertising and design.

B-Reel currently runs six offices worldwide and five divisions, including commercials, content, digital, feature films, and products.